Regional Governance Matters

1 Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School2 European Commission3 Göteborgs Universitet

Subtitle:

Quality of Government within European Union Member States

DOI:

10.1080/00343404.2013.770141

Abstract:

study presents novel data (European QoG Index – EQI) on the ‘quality of government’ (QoG) – understood as low corruption, impartial public services and rule of law – for national and sub-national levels in twenty-seven European Union countries. The EQI shows notable within-country variations: while high-performing regions in Italy and Spain (for example, Bolzano, País Vasco) rank amongst the best European Union regions, others perform well below the European Union average. The index is highly correlated with sub-national levels of socio-economic development and levels of social trust, yet political decentralization is uncorrelated with greater within-country, or higher levels of overall, QoG.